Highs and Lows on the Allotment

Last time I blogged about the allotment was when I was making plans for the year and buying seeds. Well, the allotment has now changed from empty beds and bare soil to looking like an allotment should with rows of vegetables growing. How it all changes in just a few weeks from bare soil to showing green.  For a while it was quiet and relaxed on the plot as we got on with all the preparation jobs and then suddenly it seemed like everything was happening at once with so much to be done--sowing, planting and weeding.

We haven't had much rain the last few months and last week the weather was really warm with record breaking temperatures. Its been too hot to do much allotment work except to harvest fruit and veg and do watering.

In the greenhouse the tomatoes and cucumbers are doing well and we have been picking some lovely little cucumbers.  There are so many of them we pick them while they are small to encourage more to grow. There are tomatoes appearing but not ripe yet. 

I thought I would try growing aubergines this year, I've never grown them before. I did read that they are hard to grow, so I have just got two growing in tubs in the big greenhouse. They have looked very healthy so far and produced plenty of flowers. I was really pleased to see that the first flowers on each plant have now produced tiny aubergines. However it looks like something has been eating them as there are  holes in them, one being very badly affected. I got rid of this one and decided to cut the other one while it was still small before any more holes appeared.

The onions are flopping over now so I will be pulling them soon. The cabbage bed is full of big cabbages, and they are looking great as the cabbages start to form hearts.  Also in that bed are Kale and Swedes. 

I was disappointed that the peas haven't done well this year.  The first lot were started off in lengths of guttering and there were three varieties.  They seemed to get weevil damage early on and some recovered but others didn't. The best ones were 'Onward' and I have been picking those recently. The second lot of peas sown straight into the ground also suffered from being nibbled by the weevils-or I have wondered if it was pigeons. So I had one last attempt to get some decent peas and sowed purple podded peas in guttering, then planted them out and they look ok so far.

Another disappointment was the broad beans. I don't usually have any problems with blackfly on broad beans, but this year I was amazed to see some of the plants totally infested with them. I pulled up the affected plants which was actually only two, then sprayed the rest with soapy water and pinched out the growing tips of them all. I hope this will keep the blackflies away now. I have been able to pick some of the beans and there are plenty left still.

The ground has been looking very dry and cracked with the lack of rain and I was thinking some of the seedlings might  not  survive. I have been watering as best as I can.  But in the last couple of days we have had some rain.  It may not have been enough to get deep down into the ground or fill up the water butts, but the soil now looks damp, the seedlings have perked up and everything looks much fresher.  

So although there have been some low points, the high points are that I  have plenty of crops to pick and I am buying less veg from the supermarket each week now.

Through the Garden Gate--June 2022

We've had a lot of dry weather recently and very little rain. What rain we've had hasn't always been enough to really soak the ground.  But the flowers are blooming and as the late Spring ones have gone over the early summer ones have taken their place.  Now the garden is looking good with blue Veronica, Nepeta, Scabious, Astrantia, Campanula, Roses, Clematis and many more. And the patio tubs are full of colour too.

I have been cutting back the early flowers now they have gone over--I might be lucky and have a second flowering from some of them later in the summer.  Cutting back has left a few gaps in the borders.  I am filling these with some hardy annuals which I have grown from seed--Cosmos, Zinnia, Ammi Majus and Larkspur are some of them. I grow most of the hardy annuals in a cutting bed at the allotment, but any spare plants, I bring home to plant in the garden where there is space.

Since we moved here five years ago I have been trying to get a few Foxgloves growing. All the little seedlings which they produce are potted up and then when they are big enough, planted around the garden.  I couldn't resist buying another one recently which is a lovely cream colour, as well as another Astilbe. Both of these plants grow well in the bottom border which is partial shade and can get quite damp. Another plant which also grows well in this shady bed is Persicaria. It has lovely pink bottle brush type flowers and is much admired by visitors, but it is inclined to take over and spread along the bed. So I've been digging some of this up and this has made space for the Foxgloves and Astilbe.

We have a lovely white Valerian on one side of the archway which is often visited at this time of year by a Humming Bird Hawk Moth.  They are fascinating creatures, but I haven't been able to catch this one on camera yet as it darts about very quickly.  Only Holly the cat will pose for a photo!

With a lot of the big garden jobs now done we've been able to sit and relax and enjoy the garden more. Although it can be difficult to sit for long as I always seem to spot something that needs doing.

I am linking this blog to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate'  post.

Through the Garden Gate--May 2022

The garden has really come to life in the last few weeks.  May is such a lovely month in the garden, where everything looks so fresh and green and ready to burst into flower.  The weather has been mixed, sunshine and showers and I think everyone is waiting for some warm sunny days now.

As the plants in the borders have filled out , I have less need to weed, although we do get mare's tail popping up here and there. We have been tackling one or two tidying up and reorganising projects this month in corners of the garden which can be bit troublesome. Down in the far corner of the woodland/wildlife bed, after a good weeding we  raised the soil into a mound put some more bark chippings down and arranged  some tree stumps around. We can't plant anything here because it is just rubble under the soil surface. I hope the wildlife are happy with it.

In the opposite corner where the bird feeding area is, we gave the paving stones a good clean, put some shrub tubs in place and arranged some of my gardenalia ( or junk!) around them.

On the patio I reorganised all the pots of sedums and succulents along with more gardenalia bits and bobs so that they are all in one place and I don't miss any when I'm watering.

That was a few days hard work, but meanwhile the flowers are continuing to open up and brighten our days. 

The Gertrude Jekyll rose is full of flowers and smells wonderful.

We had a lovely surprise when this Clematis appeared on the archway. I planted it a couple of years ago and forgot about it as it didn't flower. I've no idea now what its name is.

The honeysuckle 'Scentsation' is a mass of flowers and we should be getting some lovely scent from it when we sit out in the garden in the evening.

I bought some Geum 'Totally Tangerine' to brighten up the raised bed. It's a plant which I have been wanting for some time now. It does provide a good splash of colour and looks good with the Alliums.

The lupins are starting to flower now.  They are lovely cottage garden plants.

I've also been busy planting up patio pots. These are just two of them.

Now that we've got a lot of our garden jobs done I'm looking forward to some warm weather when we can sit back and enjoy the garden.

I am linking this blog post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post

Through the Garden Gate-- April 2022

 

April is a lovely month in the garden, it's a time of hope as we see so much more new growth and flowers starting to appear. The days are longer so that means more time to spend in the garden or on the allotment.

It's been a very dry April this year and I've had to keep up with watering all the patio pots.  The tulip tubs are all going over now.  There has been a couple of good displays but a lot of the other pots haven't been too good this year, so I think I will be starting again with new ones for next year.

April is also blossom time. The Amelanchier is the first to flower in our garden.  We went away for a few days over Easter to stay with our daughter Sarah, who lives in Bedfordshire and came back to see the Crab Apple and Ceonothus both in flower, that was lovely!  On the grass verges around where we live are pink blossom trees too. 

I'm so glad we managed to get the borders weeded and mulched in February and March, they are looking so well for it.  The plants have started to fill out and with some in flower there's more colour about. They do give nice surprises as I wander around and spot one which has just come into flower--it's like meeting up with old friends again.  At the moment I am enjoying a blue Camassia and pink Aquilegia by the shed, a white Dicentra near the front gate and the lovely acid yellow of the Euphorbias at the back of the Silver Birch tree.

The front garden lawn was looking a mess around the edges where last year's flowers had flopped over, so Richard neatened it up. It's given a bit more soil space for the plants to spread into and I'm trying to resist planting more to fill up some of the space as this will mean we'll have the same problem next year with messy edges!

In the back garden the raised beds in the lower seating area needed a good tidy up--everything was getting overgrown so it's been time to split and divide some of the bigger plants and moving others which were in the wrong place.  There's always something to change in the garden--that's what gardeners do.  I seem to have a least one new project every year.

Sometimes it's good to have a break from the garden. On some of the nice weather days we went to visit garden centres and last weekend we visited a nearby NGS garden.

What are you doing in your garden at the moment?

I am linking this blog post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Through the Garden Gate--March 2022

With plenty of sunny days its been lovely to get out in the garden and start work on our Spring jobs. We've been busy pruning shrubs, clearing the borders of dead flower stems and weeding. We like to mulch the borders in the Spring with a compost or soil conditioner. We decided first to investigate the bottom of the compost bin as it was so full of compostable stuff we couldn't get any more in.  My husband managed to get five trugs full of lovely compost so that was a good start to our mulching. I'm always amazed by how you can put garden rubbish and kitchen waste into the bin and months later it turns into such wonderful compost. Unfortunately what we got from the bin wasn't enough to do the whole of the garden, so we had to buy more compost from the garden centre.   Now the job is done and the garden looks very tidy--for a while.

Things are starting to grow now and I love walking around spotting green shoots appearing. There has been lots of colour from the tete a tete daffodils. They are starting to go over now but there is plenty of other colour around from the pulmonarias, hellebores, primroses, anemone blanda.  The crab apple has leaves now and the Amelanchier is starting flower.

When I've not been sorting the beds out I've been potting up Spring bedding plants for the patio. The first of the tulip tubs started flowering a couple of weeks ago  and it won't be long before the others come into bloom.

For Mother's Day I got garden related gifts from my two daughters.  A garden gift voucher from Sarah who lives 200 miles away--I'm looking forward to spending that, perhaps to buy some new perennial plants. My other daughter, Helen bought me a lovely pink Ranunculus which I've potted up and it looks well next to the pink tulips.

Now at the end of March the weather has turned cold. We've had sleet and overnight frost--what a difference.

I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.